1. After the July popular uprising, Bangladesh’s politics has reached a complicated crossroads. Ordinary people hold almost all political parties more or less responsible for creating this complex crisis. As the country’s largest political party, people want to see a leading role from the BNP to resolve this crisis.
The dignified classes are not satisfied with remaining silent and ignoring the many small parties’ grandiose, unreasonable statements. To some extent the BNP is also being held responsible for complications created unnecessarily by other political parties. As an experienced political party that has faced many attacks and counterattacks, the BNP has been following a moderate policy. Because of that moderate approach, people of all faiths and ethnicities — Muslims and followers of other religions, plains and hill communities, Garo, Chakma, Hajong, Marma, other small indigenous groups — along with devout people of Islam, have widely gathered under the BNP flag. Analyzing the results of several recent elections shows that when elections are neutral, the BNP wins. The electoral atmosphere has begun to stir across the country. With the start of the electoral season, a variety of spiritual analyses and the appearance of pirs, fakirs, tantrics, fortune-tellers and even talisman-bearing parties have been visible in many colors.
Many so-called observers, under the pretext of field surveys, have been regularly visiting the offices of various political parties. Politicians could investigate whether the advance election surveys and the past activities of certain pirs, fakirs and fortune-tellers are connected with the troublemakers who create political disasters for one another. Deceit finds many ways — through cunning, many troublemakers have begun to infiltrate the inner workings of different political parties. All parties should exercise strict caution about infiltrators. Regular communication and necessary understandings among the party that led the July uprising and all democratic parties are essential. Taking advantage of party divisions, followers of troublemakers are flooding the electoral field with money and fabricated promises. Ordinary people are annoyed and sometimes confused by the fanciful speeches of these seasonal leaders.
Field investigations show that seasonal and opportunistic candidates, employed by certain quarters to attract the high command’s attention and win preliminary nominations, are creating misleading campaigns and groupings on the ground. As a result, potentially popular party candidates are being drawn into irregular factional groupings. While opportunists favored by influential quarters can confuse unemployed youth and some vagrants in the area, party workers and supporters are not easily swayed. In the test of 17 years of sacrifice, the party’s nominated candidates who have passed that test will be made victorious largely by the party’s workers and supporters.
2. Just as fruit attracts fruit flies with its sweet smell, the popularity of a political party draws opportunists trying to swarm into it. At the same time, within parties that have a probability of winning, drug traffickers, extortionists, market stall lessees, sand-joint (balu mahal) grabbers are deliberately trying to enter the party fold to gain protection. Many who were once allies of the Awami League and of fascistic tendencies are now eagerly trying to join the ranks of protest parties like NCP, BNP, Jamaat, and others.
Many from the Awami League and Jatiya Party are searching for refuge where convenient. In Bangladesh there are roughly seven million addicts, unemployed and vagrant people who have no political or party loyalties. These frustrated youth and young people are eager to grab opportunities and take advantage of benefits; their work often only pollutes the environment.
Unemployed, drug-addicted, vagrant young people under the shadow of terrorist-extortion groups become involved in terrorism and group violence. They take over marketplaces, pavements, leftover garments, sand-joint areas and land registration offices on behalf of extortionist leaders with their group followers. These huge vagrant groupings have no party loyalty. Sometimes they participate in political programs and engage in internal party conflicts and groupings — that is one of their main activities.
3. Corrupt factional leaders, in the meetings and street speeches arranged by their loyal followers, make flowery speeches. They declare themselves openly: they are Zia family-backed, blessed, and trusted instruments of Tarique Rahman. With fabricated rhetoric they make the party controversial. These opportunists will not comply with party principles, ideals or discipline. No matter how flowery their words, in the marketplace of votes they have no value to the ordinary people. The general public detests drug dealers, extortionists, terrorists and factional groupers. The true grassroots leaders and workers inspired by the party’s ideals are still respected by ordinary people. If political practice is maintained at the grassroots, police station and district levels, important future political leadership will emerge from there. But sadly, grassroots politics has now come under the control of terrorists, drug traffickers, extortionists and grabbers.
Drug traffickers and extortionists have now become local leaders of various political parties. Due to the lack of discipline, organizational structure and practice of party ideals at the grassroots, leadership is not being developed from wards, police stations, districts and villages. Thoughtful social analysts must research this terrible danger. Various political parties must jointly step forward to change this dreadful political situation. Fortunately, Bangladesh’s history shows that during past great political disasters and crises, promising national leaders have emerged — leaders like Maulana Bhasani, Sher-e-Bangla, Suhrawardy, Sheikh Mujib, Tajuddin, Shaheed Ziaur Rahman, and Begum Khaleda Zia were forged by confronting huge storms.
In times of major political crises and disastrous situations, the people accepted their leadership. Later they successfully faced crises and established their leadership with competence and skill. Some became controversial for their acts after coming to power. In the present four-sided political crisis, Tarique Rahman is managing the situation. With skill and prudence he is leading the handling and resolution of this complex political crisis. Even in exile, Tarique Rahman is succeeding in leading the whole of Bangladesh.
Many will come and go into state power. But what the country needs now is a statesman. The people hope that Tarique Rahman — like Shaheed Zia and Khaleda Zia — will lead this nation. His glorious lineage, father Shaheed Zia and mother Begum Khaleda Zia, will welcome him. The people of Bangladesh will accept Tarique Rahman as a nationally acceptable leader through the next national parliamentary election. Tarique Rahman is not only the BNP’s leader; he is the charioteer of Bangladesh’s hopes and possibilities.
4. There are still many good people across Bangladesh. Despite a hundred obstacles, they work for the welfare of the country and its people. Although committee formations of various parties at the grassroots level in many districts and sub-districts have in many cases been done with controversial people, political activists once fought for workers’ rightful wages, agitated for farmers’ fertilizer demands, established cooperatives, libraries and clubs to create employment for unemployed youth and maintained social stability, and set up drug rehabilitation centers. A class of opportunistic touts is now exploiting unemployed young political leaders for their own interests. Many promising political leaders have been ruined by falling into the lure of the glamour of these opportunists. Because of group politics, administrative flattery and the dominance of opportunists, idealistic political activists are being humiliated step by step.
Due to the vicious cycle, the political futures of countless idealistic leaders at the grassroots, police station, district and upazila levels are being stunted in the bud. Because of the clout of opportunistic, corrupt and factional leaders, idealistic activists are cornered. Factional weeds want to soil politics, to keep the party immersed in sin and corruption. The party’s life force is its grassroots workers and supporters. It is the labor and sweat of grassroots leaders and activists that still enlivens the party today. But sadly, politics is still being damaged by a cartel of opportunistic, dishonest and corrupt people. The organizational responsibilities must be taken away from those involved with dishonest groups. An open environment must be created within the organization for the practice of discipline and party ideals. Because of nepotism, corruption and disorder, dedicated political activists are suffering greatly. Gradually, identified factional leaders will be removed and the leadership of the masses will return.
5. Recently, groupism — a terrible cancer — has arisen inside almost all political parties. Under the cover of groupings, criminal elements have been involved in drugs, extortion and grab-and-seize activities while wearing a political veneer. If these are not suppressed, politics and organizations will do more harm than good. In many districts and upazilas, even among ordinary people in neighborhoods and villages, there is fear regarding political parties in some places. If this destructive tendency of rotten politics cannot be halted, it will not be possible to establish a Bangladesh of equality, human dignity and social justice. This work is not the job of the BNP alone. Social disaster and anarchy require all political parties to reach consensus and act together responsibly. Political parties bear the greatest responsibility for these social issues.
Since the July popular uprising, the BNP as a responsible political party has repeatedly warned its leaders and workers against such injustice and wrongdoing. The Acting Chairman Tarique Rahman himself is implementing a zero-tolerance policy regarding party leaders and workers. To build a new Bangladesh in the future, political parties must play the greatest role. Whatever other parties may do, people are looking to the BNP. The people want the BNP, as the largest political party, to ensure that no wrongdoing is tolerated beyond the expectations of ordinary people. In the politics of tomorrow, every party at every level must remember: what was the aspiration behind the July popular uprising? The sacrifices of the martyrs and the physical and psychological suffering of the injured can be repaid by only one path: establishing a clean political system in the country. No single party or individual can achieve that alone. However, the responsibility for leadership in the days ahead must be taken by the BNP. A steadfast commitment by leaders and activists at all levels to democracy, the rule of law and justice can change the political culture of Bangladesh. It is every citizen’s duty to make use of the opportunity we have gained — to remake Bangladesh after so much blood and loss of life.
The writer is special assistant to BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia
